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Understanding agricultural and nutrition linkages, is there a gender dimension?

2.
The Asian Enigma
Why is South Asia’s child malnutrition rate so much
higher than Sub-Saharan Africa’s, when it does so
much better with respect to many of the long-
accepted determinants of child nutritional status, such
as national income, democracy, food supplies, health
services, and education? (Ramalingaswami et al.
1996)
12/3/2011

12.
In South Asia…
 The strongest correlation with the GHI is with the health and
survival sub-index
 Four out of 5 countries (except Sri Lanka) rank between 80th and
88th of 90 countries in the health and survival sub-index
 Linked with the low status of women:
 Maternal malnutrition linked with low birth weight
 Micronutrient malnutrition linked with poor prenatal and postnatal
health of mothers

15.
Why Agriculture for nutrition in South Asia?
 Agriculture sector engages over 50% of the total labor
force in South Asia
 Agriculture generates over 50% of rural income
 Agriculture is fundamental to a more inclusive and
sustainable structural transformation
 The potential for agriculture to influence nutrition outcomes
at scale is large

16.
Conceptualizing the pathways between
agriculture and nutrition
Agriculture is a
key driver of
poverty
reduction
But...
Pathways to
nutrition are
diverse and
interconnected
1. Agriculture as a source of food
2. Agriculture as a source of income
3. Agricultural policy and food prices
4. Expenditure patterns: how income derived
from agriculture is actually spent
Gender dimensions
5. Women’s status and intrahousehold
decisions and resource allocation
6. Women’s ability to manage young child
care
7. Women’s own nutritional status

17.
Female share of agricultural labor force
Source: FAO , 2011
 South Asia averages masked by India. In Bangladesh the
proportion is over 50%
 Proportion of women engaged in agriculture in rural areas
is much higher—83% in India

27.
Impact of agricultural technology on men’s and women’s
assets in Bangladesh
 Women’s assets increased more by programs that targeted
technologies through women’s groups
 Even when comparing identical technologies
 Nevertheless, the bulk of the household’s assets are controlled
by men
 Intrahousehold impacts may be quite different from household-
level impacts
 at the household level, the individual fishpond program appears
to be the big success
 but looking at improvements in individual (women’s and children’s)
nutritional status, group-based programs were more effective

29.
Women’s Empowerment: A key entry point for agriculture to
improve nutrition outcomes
Ensuring land and property rights for women
the Groups efforts (e.g. women’s cooperatives) should be used
for improving convergence of health ,nutrition, agriculture and
other social sector initiatives at scale
SHGs could focus on micronutrient fortification, low cost
nutrient dense supplementary foods, community mobilization
Maternity entitlements, high quality child care facilities
Correcting the gender bias in the functioning of institutions
and support systems
 Closing the gender gap in wages, access to inputs, services etc.